On December 21, 1864, the port city of Savannah, Georgia, unconditionally surrendered to Major General William Tecumseh Sherman and his Military Division of the Mississippi. It was the coup de grace of Sherman’s “March to the Sea”—an attritional campaign that carved a swath of destruction through Georgia’s economic heartland. Sixty thousand Federal troops employed a scorched-earth policy, as described in Special Field Order No. 120, that crippled Confederate industrial capacity, destroyed infrastructure, and damaged civilian resources. These punitive measures weakened Southern morale and ensur ..read more

The esthetic ruins of Old Sheldon Church—situated serendipitously beneath moss-covered canopies in Beaufort County, South Carolina—emulate celestial intrigue and retrospective melancholy analogous with the annals of Antebellum society. According to the National Register of Historic Places, Sheldon Church (c. 1745 – 1753) was America’s earliest example of “temple-form” Neoclassicism, prototypical of Greek Revival architecture popularized during the early to mid-nineteenth century. When religious services commenced in 1757, contemporary congregants lauded their house of worship as “the finest co ..read more

Maintained in an exceptional state of preservation, Drayton Hall encapsulates early American history with irreplicable authenticity. This magnificent estate—part of the Ashley River Historic District in Charleston, South Carolina—is recognized as the nation’s oldest unrestored plantation home and North America’s earliest example of complete Palladian design. These attributes distinguish Drayton Hall’s unique architectural landscape and help contextualize the stratified interdependent relationships of southern agrarian society. Drayton Hall was constructed between 1738 and 1752 under the meticu ..read more

An ethereal environment lies beneath the hills of Kentucky; a gargantuan natural phenomenon unrivaled in magnitude and sublimity. Mammoth Cave—the world’s longest cave system—has tantalized mankind’s visceral interests for centuries with its mystic permanence and renowned biodiversity. It is a truly remarkable specimen of geophysical agency that holds incredible significance in human history. Mammoth Cave’s subterranean labyrinth emerged approximately ten million years ago when mildly-acidic groundwater began percolating through cracks in sandstone caprock and eroding substrata comprised of co ..read more

The Tennessee Riverwalk is an 11.1-mile trail that meanders through the urban landscapes and diverse communities of Chattanooga, Tennessee. This recreational corridor explores the city’s intriguing social and industrial histories while appreciating the Tennessee River Valley’s delicate natural ecosystems. Mile 0 – Chickamauga Dam The Tennessee Riverwalk's northern terminus originates at Chickamauga Dam—an exemplar of New Deal innovation. Prior to the dam's conception, the Tennessee River was an untamed, flood-prone waterway that ravaged its environs. Chattanooga was particularly vulnerable to ..read more

On August 4, 1892, a horrific crime of seismic proportions sent shockwaves through the headlines. An elderly New England couple bludgeoned to death in their own home, a covert killer at large, a nation captivated by the unfolding investigation. At the center of it all was the victims’ 32-year-old daughter—implicated by presupposition and suspicious circumstance—whose inquest testimony and subsequent criminal trial transpired into one of the most prolific unsolved murders in American history. Lizzie Borden was born on July 19, 1860, in Fall River, Massachusetts—a bustling textile town located a ..read more

From humble beginnings as a family still in the Kentucky bluegrass, Jim Beam has evolved into the world’s best-selling bourbon—the product of an ancestral craftsmanship spanning seven storied generations. Jim Beam’s contemporary adoration may be understood through its history, one that encapsulates ambition, ingenuity, and perseverance. Johannes “Jacob” Boehm (later Anglicized to “Beam”) was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, on February 9, 1760. When Jacob’s father, Nicholas, died suddenly in 1766, his widow, Margaretha, relocated her five children to Frederick, Maryland, where they found re ..read more

When Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant assumed command of all Federal armies in March 1864, he endeavored to strategize a cohesive war effort. While Grant’s main objective was defeating Robert E. Lee, he coordinated simultaneous campaigns across multiple fronts to exploit the Confederacy’s lack of manpower. General William Tecumseh Sherman levied his Military Division of the Mississippi against Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of Tennessee in Georgia while three major Union forces operated in Virginia: Major General George Gordon Meade’s Army of the Potomac shadowed Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia ..read more

The socioeconomic programs of Reconstruction stimulated extensive infrastructural development within the former Confederate states. Sprawling new-construction railroad networks connected Tennessee’s once-remote coal mining regions to major industrial centers, rousing the demand for cheap labor. Like many of its destitute southern counterparts, Tennessee adopted the parsimonious convict leasing system—the exploitation of state-sanctioned punitive labor by private entities. Unfortunately, this controversial economic practice bore a striking resemblance to chattel slavery, as many of these convic ..read more

The scientific innovations conceived during the Second Industrial Revolution stimulated technological advancements in transportation, communication, and manufacturing that radically transformed America’s socioeconomic landscape. The meteoric rise of steel was conducive to this change. Groundbreaking mass production techniques (such as the Bessemer Process) proliferated steel reserves with unprecedented convenience and efficiency. With its structural superiority and wholesale accessibility, steel quickly overtook iron as the preferred material for engineering and infrastructural megaprojects. S ..read more